Chapter 101 The Mysteries Continue
CALLUM
Dawn breaks over the Rookeries. The last sunrise some of us will ever see.
I stand on the command post roof. Watching the horizon. Waiting for the assault.
Behind me, fifty-two fighters are positioned. Armed. Ready. Terrified but determined.
Isla's medical station is staffed. She's got twenty cots prepared. Knows it won't be enough. Prepared anyway.
Tom's maintaining the fae wards. Weak ones. Delaying tactics. But better than nothing.
Valentina's beside me. Armed with stakes and silver blades. Her hand finds mine.
"Whatever happens," she says, "I'm glad we had last night."
Last night. After Magnus left for the Seelie Court. After we learned he traded seventy-six years for military intervention. We spent hours together. Talking. Planning. Loving. Knowing it might be our last chance.
"Me too," I say.
In the distance, movement. The Parliamentary hunters are positioning.
I count them through binoculars. Sixty vampire hunters. Ten dragons in human form. Ten Hermetic Order mages. Thirty pack enforcers.
One hundred ten combatants.
Plus magical wards. Plus dragon fire. Plus overwhelming force.
We're going to die.
But Magnus bought us hope. Thirty fae warriors.
If they arrive.
If Magnus's deal worked.
If we last long enough for intervention to matter.
"They're moving," Valentina says.
The hunters advance. Coordinated. Professional. Death incarnate.
Our fighters tense. Weapons ready.
This is it.
Then the air shimmers.
Reality tears.
And through the tear, thirty Seelie knights step into London.
They're beautiful and terrifying. Silver armor. Fae-blessed weapons. Ancient eyes. Warriors from the dawn of time.
"Holy shit," Tom breathes. "Magnus actually did it."
The fae warriors fan out. Positioning between us and the Parliamentary hunters.
Mordaunt's forces stop. Confused. This wasn't in their plan.
"What's happening?" I hear someone shout.
"Fae intervention," another responds. "Just like Camden."
The odds just changed. Fifty-two wolves plus thirty fae warriors. Eighty-two combatants against one hundred ten.
Still outnumbered. But not impossibly.
"New plan," I shout to my crew. "Fae take the frontline. We support. Crossfire positions. Hit them from angles."
My fighters move. Repositioning. Adapting.
Across the battlefield, I see him.
Cormac.
Leading the pack enforcers. My twin brother. Here to kill me.
Our eyes meet across the distance.
Two years of hatred. Betrayal. War. Coming to this moment.
Valentina sees him too. "That's Cormac?"
"Yeah."
"He looks like you."
"Seven minutes older. Lifetime different." I check my weapons. "Ready?"
"Are you?"
"No. But that's never stopped me before."
Behind us, Sibyl appears. "I'm seeing it now. The thing that was blocked. Magnus's sacrifice. The fae intervention. Multiple futures colliding into one path."
"What path?"
"The one where London changes forever." She grips my arm. "Win or lose today, nothing's the same after. The balance shifts. Power structures crack. Supernatural London enters a new age."
"Cryptic."
"That's my specialty." She smiles. "But also: you survive. In most futures. Not all. But most."
"And the others?"
"Some die. Many live. The community endures." She releases me. "That's all I can see. The details are chaos."
The Parliamentary hunters resume their advance. Slowly. Warily. The fae presence changed their calculations.
Mordaunt appears at the rear. Watching from safe distance. Smiling.
He's enjoying this. The uncertainty. The chaos. The violence about to explode.
"This should be entertaining," I imagine him thinking.
Tom opens fae gates. More reinforcements arriving. Not warriors. Support personnel. Medical. Logistics. The fae aren't just fighting. They're invested.
Isla's readying her station. "However this goes, there'll be wounded. I'll do what I can."
"That's all any of us can do."
The hunters are a hundred yards away. Fifty yards. Twenty.
Our fighters aim weapons. Fae warriors raise blades.
Everyone waits for the first shot.
For the moment everything explodes.
For the battle that changes London forever.
Cormac and I lock eyes again. Across the battlefield. Twin brothers. Mortal enemies.
This ends today.
One way or another.
The sun rises fully. Dawn breaks complete.
And the battle begins.
Gunfire. Screaming. Clashing steel. Magic exploding. Dragon fire roaring. Wolves howling. Fae war cries. Vampire shrieks.
The Rookeries erupts into war.
The battle began at dawn. What ended at dusk would change London forever.